The present invention generally relates to a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure and structures formed by such method and more particularly, relates to a method for forming a copper conductor that has improved electromigration resistance by incorporating dopant ions into the conductor and structures formed by such method.
The technology of making metal conductors to provide for vias, lines and other recesses in semiconductor chip structures, flat panel displays and package applications has been developed in the past decade. For instance, in developing interconnection technology for very-large-scale-integrated (VLSI) structures, aluminum has been utilized as the primary metal source for contacts and interconnects in semiconductor regions or devices located on a single substrate. Aluminum has been the material of choice because of its low cost, good ohmic contact and high conductivity. However, pure aluminum thin-film conductors have undesirable properties such as a low melting point which limits its use to low temperature processing possible diffusion into the silicon during annealing which leads to contact and junction failure, and poor electromigration resistance. Consequently, a number of aluminum alloys have been developed which provided advances over pure aluminum. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,177 discloses a conductive layer of an alloy of aluminum containing up to 3% by weight of silicon, copper, nickel, chromium and manganese developed to improve electromigration resistance. U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,304 discloses aluminum alloys with aluminum oxide which were also used to improve electromigration resistance.
Recently developed ULSI technology has placed more stringent demands on the wiring requirements due to the extremely high circuit densities and faster operating speeds required of such devices. This leads to higher current densities in increasingly smaller conductor lines. As a result, higher conductance wiring is desired which requires either larger cross-section wires for aluminum alloy conductors or a different wiring material that has a higher conductance. The obvious choice in the industry is to develop the latter which includes pure copper for its desirable high conductivity.
In the formation of ULSI interconnection structures such as vias and lines, copper can be deposited into such recesses to interconnect semiconductor regions or devices located on the same substrate. However, copper is known to have problems in semiconductor devices. Since copper is a mid-level trap which degrades the device. The electromigration phenomenon occurs when the superposition of an electric field onto random thermal diffusion in a metallic solid causes a net drift of ions in the direction of the electron flow. Any diffusion of copper ions into the silicon substrate can cause device failure. In addition, pure copper does not adhere well to oxygen-containing dielectrics such as silicon dioxide and polyimide. To fully utilize copper in interconnection technology, the adhesion properties of copper must also be improved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,274, assigned to the common assignee of the present invention, discloses the use of a copper alloy containing an alloying element of less than 2 atomic % by first depositing an alloy into the recess of an interconnection structure and then forming a copper alloy plug. However, the technique still does not satisfy the more stringent requirements in ULSI structures where critical dimensions of less than 0.5 xcexcm place a considerable burden on thin film chip interconnections. The use of standard Al (Cu) alloy and a silicon dioxide dielectric in a deep-submicron logic circuit wiring structure results in a large circuit delay caused mainly by the wiring connections.
The use of Cu as an alternative material to Al (Cu) in ULSI wiring structures to increase the chip speed has been attempted by others. However, numerous problems are incurred in Cu interconnections such as the tendency of Cu to corrode and the fast surface diffusion rates of copper in thin films. It is known that pure Cu has a smaller electromigration activation energy, i.e., 0.5xcx9c0.8 eV, than that in Al (Cu) of 0.8xcx9c0.9 eV. This implies that the advantage of using Cu for reducing interconnection electromigration failure at chip operating conditions is largely compromised.
A schematic of an enlarged, cross-sectional view of an electronic structure that utilizes conventional interconnections made of a copper alloy is shown in FIG. 1. The electronic structure 10 contains two levels of copper interconnections 12, 16 and one stud level 14 illustrating a copper wiring structure formed in a Damascene process on a pre-fabricated device 20. The device 20 is built on a semi-conducting substrate 24. As shown in FIG. 1, a typical Damascene level is first fabricated by the deposition of a planar dielectric stack 26. The dielectric stack 26 is then patterned and etched using standard lithographic and dry etch techniques to produce a desired wiring or via pattern. The process is then followed by the metal depositions of a thin adhesion/diffusion liner 18 and copper alloy metallurgy 12 wherein a bottom silicon nitride layer 28 is used as a diffusion barrier which is previously deposited on top of the device 20 to protect against copper diffusion. After the copper alloy interconnection 12 is formed, a top silicon nitride layer 32 is deposited and used as an etch stop layer for defining the next level copper interconnection 14. After a second level dielectric stack 34 is deposited, a recess for an interconnect is etched into the dielectric layer 34 and the silicon nitride layer 32.
A interlevel copper alloy stud 14 with liner 22 is then deposited by a technique similar to that used in depositing the first level copper alloy interconnection 12. A variety of metal deposition techniques can be used for filling the trench or via. These techniques include a collimated sputtering process, an ion cluster beam process, an electron cyclotron resonance process, a chemical vapor deposition process, an electroless plating process and an electrolytic plating process. Other techniques such as a co-deposition method in which copper and an alloying element are co-deposited can also be used in forming the copper alloys. For instance, the co-deposition methods include co-sputtering, xe2x80x9calloy platingxe2x80x9d, sequential plating of different materials with subsequent annealing, chemical vapor deposition, sequential chemical vapor deposition and co-evaporation. After the completion of the interlevel copper alloy stud 14, another similar process is repeated to form the second level copper interconnection 16 with liner 24 in a third dielectric stack layer 38. An etch stop layer 36 of silicon nitride is utilized between the stud and the second level interconnections. Finally, a top silicon nitride layer 42 is deposited on top of the copper wiring structure 10 for protecting the device from the environment.
Other workers have attempted to use copper alloys in providing enhanced electromigration resistance. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,698 teaches copper alloys containing at least one alloying element selected from the group of Al, Be, Cr, Fe, Mg, Ni, Si, Sn and Zn. U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,005 teaches copper alloys containing at least one member selected from In, Cd, Sb, Bi, Ti, Ag, Sn, Pb, Zr and Hf where the weight percent of the alloying element used is between 0.0003 to 0.01. The copper alloys are used in TAB processes and as print circuit board members. U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,520 also teaches copper foil for a film carrier application containing at least one alloying element selected from P, Al, Cd, Fe, Mg, Ni, Sn, Ag, Hf. Zn, B, As, Co, In, Mn, Si, Te, Cr and Zn with the alloying element concentrations from 0.03 to 0.5 weight percent. The alloys are used as connecting leads in integrated circuit chip mounting. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,548 teaches copper alloys containing at least one alloying element selected from Cr, Zr, Li, P, Mg, Si, Al, Zn, Mn, Ni, Sn, Ti, Be, Fe, Co, Y, Ce, La, Nb, W, V, Ta, B, Hf, Mo and C. The alloying elements are used to increase the strength of the copper alloy. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,243,222 and 5,130,274 teach copper alloys for improved adhesion and formation of diffusion barriers. However, none of these prior work teaches copper alloys that are sufficiently improved for use in ULSI on-chip or off-chip wiring interconnections to meet the electromigration resistance and the adhesion property requirements. Interconnection structures on ULSI devices must provide dense, fully continuous metal wiring in insulator structures with features much less than 0.5 xcexcm in width, and with aspect ratios higher than 1.
More recently, void-free and seamless conductors are produced by electroplating copper from plating baths that contain additives. The capability of the electroplating method to superfill structural features without leaving voids or seams is unique and superior to that of other deposition techniques.
Electrolytic copper plating techniques used in damascene structures can be defect-free if a seed layer deposited is continuous and has a uniform thickness even in the deepest area of the structural feature to be plated. The copper seed layer is typically deposited by a physical vapor deposition technique or a sputtering technique over a barrier layer that prevents diffusion of copper into the insulator such as Ta or TaN. When the seed layer deposited is too thin at the bottom or near-bottom walls of a structural feature, plating does not occur and a void is created.
In order to eliminate the non-continuous deposition problem occurring during sputtering of a copper seed layer, a seed layer of a larger thickness is normally deposited. The deposition of a thick seed layer eliminates the plated Cu voiding problem, however, it creates another one of equal or even greater significance, i.e., poor electromigration resistance in the resultant structure. The poor electromigration resistance of the structure is caused by the fact that the seed layer itself has weak electromigration resistance when compared to the much higher resistance of the plated film. It is also noted that in future generation of chips, the seed layer contributes an increasing part of the total structure based on the dimensions of the features and the inability to decrease the thickness of the seed layer proportionally for reason stated above as well as the thickness uniformity requirements in electrolytic plating.
Ion implantation method has been used for placing impurity, or doping ions in a semiconductor material such as in a silicon substrate at precisely controlled depths and with accurate control of dopant ion concentration. One of the major benefits of the method is its capability to precisely place ions at preselected locations and at predetermined dosage. It is a very reproducible process that enables a high level of dopant uniformity. For instance, a typical variation of less than 1% can be obtained across a wafer.
An ion implanter operates by providing an ion source wherein collisions of electrons and neutral atoms result in a large number of ions being produced. The ions required for doping are then selected by an analyzing magnet and sent through an acceleration tube. The accelerated ions bombard directly the portion of a silicon wafer where doping is required. The bombardment of the ion beam is usually conducted by scanning the beam or by rotating the wafer in order to achieve uniformity. A heavy layer of silicon dioxide or a heavy coating of a positive photoresist is used as the implantation mask. The depth of the dopant ions implanted can be determined by the energy possessed by the dopant ions, which is adjustable by changing the acceleration chamber voltage. The dosage level of the implantation, i.e., the number of dopant ions that enters into the wafer, is determined by monitoring the number of ions passing through a detector. As a result, a precise control of the junction depth planted in a silicon substrate can be achieved by adjusting the implantation energy, while a precise control of the dopant concentration can be achieved by adjusting the dosage level.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in, an IC device that does not have the drawbacks and shortcomings of conventional copper conductor devices.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure that has improved electromigration-resistance by adding impurities into the copper conductor.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic device that has improved electromigration-resistance property by doping the copper conductor structure with impurities selected from C, O, Cl, S and N.
It is another further object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic device that has improved electromigration resistance by an electrolytic plating technique.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic device that has improved electromigration resistance by first depositing a copper seed layer into a receptacle and then ion-implanting impurities into the seed layer.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a copper conductor in an electronic device that contains impurities for improved electromigration resistance.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic device that has improved electromigration resistance by first electrodepositing a copper composition containing impurities into a receptacle and then annealing the electronic device such that impurities diffuse into a copper seed layer previously deposited in the receptacle.
It is still another further object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic device that has improved electromigration resistance by first depositing a barrier layer into a receptacle and then implanting dopant ions into the barrier layer prior to depositing a copper seed layer on top of the barrier layer and annealing the structure such that dopant ions diffuse into the copper seed layer.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure that has improved electromigration-resistance by first adding impurities into the copper conductor and then ion-implanting a surface layer of the conductor with at least one ion of Co, Al, Sn, In, Ti C, O, Cl, S, N, or Cr.
In accordance with the present invention, a solution to the electromigration problem caused by thick copper seed layers is provided. The solution to achieve higher electromigration resistance in plated copper originates from the incorporation of dopants into a copper film during the plating process. The ideal dopants include, but not limited to, C, O, S, Cl and N. Other than the plating process, ion implantation may also be used to incorporate dopants in a copper film.
In a preferred embodiment, a method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure can be carried out by the steps of first providing an electronic structure, then forming a receptacle for a conductor in the electronic structure, then depositing a copper composition in the receptacle, and adding impurities into the copper composition such that its electromigration resistance is improved.
The method for forming a copper conductor having improved electromigration resistance may be carried out by depositing the copper composition by a technique of electroplating, physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition. The impurities incorporated in the plating process or incorporated in the copper film by a separate ion implantation method may be at least one type of ions selected from the group consisting of C, O, Cl, S and N. The impurities can be added to the copper composition in a concentration range of between about 0.01 ppm by weight and about 1000 ppm by weight. The copper deposition step may further include the steps of depositing a copper seed layer into a receptacle, ion-implanting at least one type of impurities into the seed layer, and electrolytically plating copper into the receptacle. The seed layer may further be annealed to uniformly distribute the impurities in the layer. The deposition step for the copper composition may further include the steps of depositing a copper seed layer into the receptacle, electro-depositing a copper composition containing impurities into and filling the receptacle, and annealing the electronic structure such that impurities diffuse into the copper seed layer. The impurities are dopant ions.
The deposition step for the copper composition may further include the steps of depositing a barrier layer into the receptacle, implanting dopant ions into the barrier layer, depositing a copper seed layer on top of the barrier layer, and annealing the electronic structure such that dopant ions diffuse into the copper seed layer. The copper seed layer may be deposited by a physical vapor faze deposition technique or chemical vapor deposition technique. The method may further include the step of depositing a copper composition into and filling the receptacle. Such deposition step for the copper composition can be carried out by electroplating, physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic substrate can be carried out by the operating steps of first providing an electronic substrate, then forming a receptacle for a conductor in the electronic substrate, then depositing a copper seed layer into the receptacle, then ion-implanting at least one type of impurities into the seed layer, and depositing a copper composition in the receptacle.
The copper composition may be deposited into the receptacle by electrolytically plating copper into the receptacle. The method may further include the step of annealing the seed layer to uniformly distribute the impurities in the layer. The method may further include the steps of annealing the seed layer to uniformly distribute the impurities in the layer and to cause a diffusion of the impurities into the electrolytically plated copper. The copper composition can be deposited by a technique selected from the group consisting of electroplating, physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition. The impurities may be at least one type of ions selected from the group consisting of C, O, Cl, S and N. The impurities can be added to the copper composition in a concentration range between about 0.01 ppm by weight and about 1000 ppm by weight.
In still another preferred embodiment, the present invention method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure can be carried out by the steps of first providing an electronic structure, then forming a receptacle for a conductor in the electronic structure, then depositing a copper seed layer into the receptacle, then electro-depositing a copper composition containing impurities into and filling the receptacle, and annealing the electronic structure such that the impurities diffuse into the copper seed layer.
The method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure may further include the step of implanting impurities which are dopant ions. The impurities can be at least one type of ions selected from the group consisting of C, O, Cl, S and N. The impurities are added to the copper composition in a concentration range between about 0.01 ppm by weight and about 1000 ppm by weight. The annealing step uniformly distribute the impurities in the copper composition.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the present invention method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure can be carried out by the steps of first providing an electronic structure, then forming a receptacle for a conductor in the electronic structure, then depositing a barrier layer into the receptacle and implanting dopant ions into the barrier layer, then depositing a copper seed layer on top of the barrier layer, and annealing the electronic structure such that dopant ions diffuse into the copper seed layer.
The method may further include the step of depositing a copper composition into and filling the receptacle. The copper composition may be deposited by a technique such as electroplating, physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition. The dopant ions can be implanted into the barrier layer in a concentration range of between about 0.01 ppm by weight and about 1000 ppm by weight. The dopant ions are implanted into the barrier layer and diffused into the copper seed layer such that their electromigration resistance is improved.
In still another preferred embodiment, the present invention method for forming a copper conductor in an electronic structure that has improved electromigration-resistance which can be carried out by first adding impurities such as C, O, Cl, S or N into the copper conductor and then ion-implanting a surface layer of the conductor with at least one ion of Co, Al, Sn, In, Ti, C, O, Cl, S, N, or Cr. The surface layer may have a thickness between about 30 xc3x85 and about 500 xc3x85, with a typical thickness of 200 xc3x85. The advantages achieved by the dual-implantation process for further surface modification are the improvement of adhesion with subsequently deposited dielectric layers on top of the copper conductor, i.e., such as a nitride layer or an oxide layer; and a decrease in the copper surface diffusivity by the formation of a copper complex or metal oxides that segregate the surface. The metal ions chosen for the secondary surface implantation process have high affinity for oxygen such that the ions segregate to the copper interface (or surface) to form metal oxides as a protective layer for the copper conductor.